The scene shows a timeline in which the left side shows the “baggage” they carry around with them the center shows the present state they are in, lying on toilet paper, which shows how worthless and miserable their life is and the right side shows the hope and happiness that they strive to achieve. The luggage beside them while sleeping depicts the “baggage,” their mistakes and problems that they have to carry around with them. In this scene we can witness the desperation of Chris to find shelter as we see them living in a bathroom, a place which is perceived as a dirty place where people prefer not to live. This scene lets the viewers marvel at the atmosphere Chris creates for his son and the sudden change in atmosphere when they lock themselves inside a toilet and have to spend the entire night there as they have no other place to sleep. The melancholic music suddenly changes and the reality of the situation seeps in as the music becomes heavy.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS MOVIE CLIPS MOVIE
This is an important part of the movie as the mise-en-scene has been shown to represent the struggles faced by Chris and his efforts to achieve happiness.
One particularly memorable scene is staged in the subway, when Chris tries to bring to life Christopher’s imagination of them traveling through time via the bone density scanner. But there is excess demand for these, which the shelters cannot accommodate so space is given on a first-come, first-served basis. Not many people can afford a home so the government devises a policy to make homeless shelters where people can live for free.
That is why there is a queue outside the shelters every day starting at 5 P.M.
But the problem with homeless shelters is that there are too many people who are homeless and the rooms provided are not enough for everyone. When Chris has no money at all, he and Christopher live at a homeless shelter and even in a subway station bathroom. At one point during the movie, Chris even sells his blood to earn $21 as he only has around $8 to his name. Christopher no longer attends day care as Chris cannot afford it. There is a decrease in Chris’s purchasing power. Chris is then forced to move out from his house and live in a rented apartment.
After taking the internship, Chris’s real income changes once he leaves his job as a salesman it doesn’t help that $600 is taken from his account by the government because of his inability to pay his bills. Without money or a life partner, Chris finds it challenging to work his way from a six-month unpaid internship with a brokerage firm called Dean Witter to a single spot that twenty men are vying for.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS MOVIE CLIPS PORTABLE
Chris soon realizes that there is little demand for the portable bone density scanner, rendering his stock in the company worthless. Chris’s belief in the product showing potential leads him to gamble his family’s entire life savings, which destroys his family as his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves him and their five-year-old son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and moves to New York to start a new life. He invests all of his life savings in a portable bone density scanner, which provides slightly denser pictures than X-rays for twice the money. The story is set in the 1980s with an African American protagonist, Chris Gardner (Will Smith), who was the top of his class in the Navy yet was on the verge of bankruptcy. This movie was an immediate success with audiences and has been critically acclaimed as “an inspirational and often emotionally wrenching story.” The Pursuit of Happyness (Sony Pictures, 2006)Ĭan a man face a plethora of hardships both personally and professionally to pursue a bit of happiness, especially when the only happiness he knows of is the word “happyness” written on a wall? The answer would be this movie, which is based on a true story written by Steven Conrad and is directed by Gabriele Muccino.